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EDITORS’ NOTES

When singer/songwriter Julie Baenziger—a.k.a. Sea of Bees—opens her vocal cords to a soulful bleeding of emotion, it’s a wondrous mélange of naïve quiver and country-girl matter-of-factness. The follow-up to her impressive debut, Songs for the Ravens, Orangefarben finds the Northern California artist lamenting a romantic breakup with equal parts sadness and mustered bravado. It’s an emotional state well-suited to her lovely lilt; Baenziger’s smart lyrics and textural range are icing on the cake. On rallying spirit-lifters like “Girl” and “Broke,” her band races on slightly quickened pulses. In more somber moments, cellos exhale and steel guitars sigh, and a mellotron glows with a warm murmur. Baenziger conjures American gothic beauty out of heartache on tunes like “Take” and “More,” while her cover of John Denver’s “Leaving (On a Jet Plane)” is second only to the ‘60s hit by Peter, Paul & Mary. Orangefarben is a deep-reaching collection that gently taps into a well of emotions borne of loss and hope. It gets under your skin in a most beautiful way.

Orangefarben

EDITORS’ NOTES

When singer/songwriter Julie Baenziger—a.k.a. Sea of Bees—opens her vocal cords to a soulful bleeding of emotion, it’s a wondrous mélange of naïve quiver and country-girl matter-of-factness. The follow-up to her impressive debut, Songs for the Ravens, Orangefarben finds the Northern California artist lamenting a romantic breakup with equal parts sadness and mustered bravado. It’s an emotional state well-suited to her lovely lilt; Baenziger’s smart lyrics and textural range are icing on the cake. On rallying spirit-lifters like “Girl” and “Broke,” her band races on slightly quickened pulses. In more somber moments, cellos exhale and steel guitars sigh, and a mellotron glows with a warm murmur. Baenziger conjures American gothic beauty out of heartache on tunes like “Take” and “More,” while her cover of John Denver’s “Leaving (On a Jet Plane)” is second only to the ‘60s hit by Peter, Paul & Mary. Orangefarben is a deep-reaching collection that gently taps into a well of emotions borne of loss and hope. It gets under your skin in a most beautiful way.

TITLE

TIME

Broke

4:00

Take

4:17

Gone

3:48

Teeth

4:00

More

4:20

Give

4:06

Smile

4:03

Leaving

3:59

Girl

2:37

Alien

5:26

Grew

4:23

11 Songs, 44 Minutes

℗ 2012 Team Love

About Sea of Bees

Marked by charm and introspection, Sea of Bees is the folk-seasoned indie pop project of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Julie Baenziger. Raised in California's Central Valley, she taught herself guitar, piano, percussion, and more instruments beginning in her teens, eventually self-recording the first Sea of Bees release, 2009's Bee Eee Pee, in a single afternoon. After signing with Crossbill Records in the U.S., she followed up the EP in 2010 with the critically well-received full-length Songs for the Ravens, which included performances by John Bee, Vetiver's Andy Cabic, and Grandaddy's James Neil and led to a record deal with Heavenly (Universal Music Group) for worldwide release. Containing covers of Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" and U2's "With or Without You," the EP Gnomes was issued a year later, and a second full-length album, Orangefarben (also featuring Bee, Neil, and Rusty Miller, among others), arrived in 2012 on Heavenly and Team Love Records. With a full band, the contemplative but decidedly upbeat Build a Boat to the Sun followed in the summer of 2015 via 3 Loop Music. ~ Marcy Donelson